'The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers'

A hearty thanks goes out to The Gay Gamer commenter and, far more importantly, developer (of Astroman and Tiny Barbarian DX, among other titles) Michael Stearns for pointing out the following Kickstarter, which is in support of British writer John Szczepaniak's ambitious quest to pen a book entitled "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers."

Szczepaniak's goal for this £50,000 project: to cram "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers" full of more interviews with Japanese developers than any previous gaming-centric tome.

"There are so many Japanese developers from over the decades who have fascinating stories, but they don't have the opportunity to communicate with English speaking audiences," Szczepaniak explains.



"This book will not be a nostalgia trip," he adds. "I am determined to have every page contain at least one previously unknown fact, anecdote or piece of trivia. My passion has always been the undocumented side of games, and regardless of who I speak with my intention will always be to ask them something no one else ever has."

To learn more about Szczepaniak's plan for "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers," check out the video above or pay a visit to the project's Kickstarter page between now and 6 am EDT on June 30.

Not-So-Mega Man

Those of you who regularly troll (I mean that in a good way here, I swear) this blog's comments sections may have come across the username "gsilverfish" once in a while.

Well, it appears that gsilverfish is more than just your average blog commenter--he's also a really talented developer of games (including the XBLIG title, Astroman) who goes by the real-life name of Michael Stearns.

Speaking of Michael and his games, he's currently working on getting a rather awesome looking game called Tiny Barbarian DX off the ground via Kickstarter.

Rather than blather on about Tiny Barbarian DX and what it will offer gamers should they succeed in backing the project (which ends in 16 days), I thought I'd just point you to its Kickstarter page and also share this gameplay trailer:



Looks cool, right? I especially like the looks of the game's combo/juggling system, which for various reasons makes me think of a few of Treasure's classics (like Gunstar Heroes and Guardian Heroes). Oh, and of course I just like its looks, too.

Anyway, should you also like the looks (in all manners of speaking) of Tiny Barbarian DX, may I suggest heading over to the game's Kickstarter page sometime between now and 11:30 am EST on Dec. 19?

If you need to hear a bit more about Michael and his in-the-works game before deciding to financially back it, you may also want to check out this recent--and rather interesting, if I do say so myself--interview over at the Erratic Gamer blog.